12 Steps to Getting Better Gas Mileage!

by Amy Mattinat, Author of "How To Buy A Great Used Car," available at www.usedcarexperts.com
There are a number of things you can do to ease the money coming out of your wallet to pay for gasoline
to power your car. The easiest and most effective way to save money on
gas is to park it. Hide the keys from yourself and walk or ride a bike.
If you need to go a greater distance try carpooling. This will cut your
fuel costs in half and you don’t have the expense of maintaining a car.
If you live in a larger city, public transportation can replace your
car plus it eliminates the hassle of finding a parking spot.

But
let’s get real. For most of us owning and driving an automobile is a
necessity. For others, it’s our freedom to come and go as we please and
we have no intention of giving that up.

Before you can start getting better
mileage, you need to find out what kind of gas mileage your car is
getting. Put a pen and small notebook in the glove box of your car. The
next time you fill up the tank, record the odometer reading and reset
your trip gauge to zero. From then on, every time you fill the tank
subtract the new mileage from the old mileage. Take this number (the
miles you traveled between filling-up) and divide by the quantity of
gas you bought. This is your car’s miles per gallon or mpg.

Example: You traveled 300 miles and put in 10 gallons of gas. 300 divided by 10 = 30 mpg. If you don’t like what you’re getting or just want to do even better, take some of these fuel saving tips:

1.
Slow Down! According to the Car Care Council, there is an aerodynamic
drag on your car that at 70 mph is double the drag then at 50 mph.
slowing down can increase your mileage. Each mph driven over 60 will
result in an additional 10 cents per gallon down the fuel tank.

2.
Drive kindly! Don’t be a tailgater or an impatient person that passes
everyone. All that rapid acceleration and hard braking not only wastes
gas, but is annoying and can be dangerous. This bad
habit can lower your gas mileage by 33% on the highway and 5% in the
city driving, which can result in 7 to 49 cents per gallon.

3. Avoid
excessive idling! You get zero miles per gallon when the car it just
sitting there idling away, and it also burns more gas than restarting
the engine, puts wear and tear on the engine and adds to toxic
emissions.

4. Minimize air conditioning! In
city driving using the air conditioner in hot weather can increase your
fuel consumption more than 20%. An efficient way to utilize the A/C is
to use it to cool off the car, then turn it off and use the air vents
to circulate the air. You can do this repeatedly if it gets stuffy and
hot in the car. Sunroofs and tinted glass also help to keep the car
cool.

5.
Travel Smart. Using a roof rack or a carrier gives you additional cargo
space with smaller cars, however a loaded rack decreases fue
l efficiency by 5%. If objects will fit in the trunk this will
reduce wind resistance and increase fuel efficiency. But, make sure
you empty out the trunk afterwards because carrying around unnecessary
items that weigh over 100 pounds also reduces an automobile’s fuel
efficiency by 1 to 2%.

6.Remember to check your tires for proper inflation! If your tires are
under inflated then it can cost a mile or two per gallon. By keeping
your tires inflated to the proper pressure, they will wear longer and
can improve your gas mileage by about 3.3%. You should check your tire
inflation pressure (including the spare) at least once a month and
definitely before every long trip.

7.Are
you in alignment? When your car’s wheel are aligned this will reduce
tire wear, give you better gas mileage, and improve the handling.
8.One-stop
shopping! Plan your shopping so you can do all your errands in one day.
Park the car in a central location and walk between destinations.
Several short stop and go errands can use twice as much fuel than a
longer multipurpose trip covering the same distance.

9.Check out
your gas cap. According to the Car Care Council, about 17% of the
vehicles on the roads have gas caps that are either damaged, loose or
are missing altogether, causing 147 million gallons of gas to vaporize
every year.

10.Is your air filter dirty? The air filter is easily accessible and
simple to change. Replacing a dirty, clogged filter can improve your
gas mileage by as much as 10%, which is a savings of about 15 cents per
gallon.

11.Give
your car a day at the “car spa” approximately every 30,000 miles
(depending on the model). Vehicles have 4, 6 or 8 sparkplugs that every
1,000 miles fire as many as 3 million times. This creates a lot of
heat, electrical and chemical erosion. The worn out and dirty plugs
need to be replaced on a regular basis. A well maintained, tuned-up car
may improve gas mileage by about 4 %, which saves you fuel, and money
and reduces long-term maintenance costs. There are also many sensors
that help keep the engine running smoothly and efficiently. Replacing a
failed oxygen sensor could improve your gas mileage as much as 40%.

12.Know how to handle the gas pumps. When the gas pump turns off, stop
the pump! Don’t try to add a couple more splashes to even up the dollar
amount. A lot of newer cars don’t have room for any more gas and
anything else those extra splashes will end up on the ground. plus In
the warmer weather those extra splashes can expand and cause an
overflow.

These
are simple things you can do that will make a big difference to the
overall cost of keeping your automobile’s insatiable hunger filled.
Following these steps you can add miles to every gallon with your coupe, sedan, wagon, SUV, minivan and pickup truck!

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